I took the Tube from Liverpool Street Station to Southfields, the closest Tube station to the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the venue of the tournament. I had to walk for about 20 minutes to my gate (there were several gates as the entry point, and a spectator was assigned to a specific gate based on his/her ticket), which was quite a nice walk in one of London’s posh neighbourhoods 😛 .

The neighbourhood of Wimbledon

The gate was finally opened at 10:30 AM. The multiple gates system was quite good in my opinion where the queue in each gate was not terribly long. I was handed my official ticket at the gate and then got the thorough security check before I was admitted to the ground. And there I was, feeling very excited that I was back in Wimbledon again this year!! Even more excited because I was finally going to watch a Venus Williams’ official singles match for the first time ever; and it happened to be a Wimbledon final match!! 😍

Venus’ match would not start before 2 PM so I had plenty of time before that. So obviously I went around Wimbledon’s beautiful venue, and planned on taking a selfie at Henman Hill with the Wimbledon 2017 flowers arrangement. While doing so, a BBC live camera was apparently shooting the Henman Hill and so me selfie-ing got broadcasted on live TV, lol 😱 .

Selfie-ing at Henman Hill!

After going around for a few rounds, I started to get hungry so I decided to get my favorite dish from two years ago: the southern fried chicken that was only sold at one stall in the whole venue: in the Aorangi food area underneath Court No.1 😛 . This time, though, the chicken was a little bit too overcooked and the chips was too much to me that I could not finish it, haha 😛 . But of course, after that I still had my scoop of strawberry and cream. You know, a trip to Wimbledon is NEVER complete without one!

Southern fried chicken

Because a trip to Wimbledon is NEVER complete without a bowl of strawberry and cream

The weather was not perfect today, where thick cloud was hanging throughout the day and occassional showers fell. So I went underneath the Centre Court, where (finally!) they had put some boards listing the past winners of the championships. As for the (recent) ladies’ singles, here is the partial list:

The list of the ladies’ singles champions

Yep, as you can see, a certain surname is indeed dominating the list since the year 2000! Haha . Yep, Venus Wiliams and Serena Williams had won twelve Wimbledon singles titles for the seventeen years between 2000 and 2016. The other five were won by Petra Kvitova (twice), Marion Bartoli, Amelie Mauresmo, and Maria Sharapova.

Anyway, I decided to enter the Centre Court not long after, as I got quite tired from walking anyway, haha 😆 . But since it was still about 45 minutes before the match would start, I decided to go closer to the court first to take my picture taken 😛 .

Back at Wimbledon Centre Court this year.

Then, I went back to my seat, rested my legs a little bit and charged my camera’s battery while there was still time, haha 😆 . Just before 2 PM, the match preparation started with the ballkids entering the court, followed by the line-judges. At 2 PM, both finalists, Venus Williams and Garbine Muguruza entered the court. At this time, I felt a little bit emotional seeing Venus Williams walking there, still fighting hard for grandslam singles titles, even at the age of 37, while battling an incurable auto-immune disease! To me, she is a total inspiration.

Muguruza won the coin toss and elected to receive, meaning Venus would serve first. The two players warmed up, and then the match started. The match started really competitively and was immediately at a really high level. The match’s first shot was even Venus’ big serve to the T that became an ace.

Venus Williams started the match with an ace

The two players really went toe to toe and so the match was really, really exciting at this point. Muguruza, especially, played really well in my opinion where I felt like she read Venus’ serves really well today. Nonetheless, the match finally reached the score 4*-5 (15-40) on Muguruza’s serve, meaning Venus had two set points, or opportunities, to win the first set. At this time, both players hit amazing shot after shot after shot, producing a long rally in the teens, which ended with Venus’ forehand error that hit the net. And from my observation, this became the turning point of the match.

Garbine Muguruza was reading Venus’ serves well today.

For whatever reason, it appeared to me that Venus dwelled on this point too much, thus affecting her mind state. Since then, she appeared to rapidly lose her timing and focus, and started to hit more and more unforced errors. Muguruza did well where she kept her composure and focus. It was not that Venus did not try. It was obvious that she tried hard; but she just could not string several good points together. As a result? Well, Muguruza won nine straight games since that turning point, closing the match in only 73 minutes and won 7–5, 6–0.

Garbine Muguruza won her second grandslam title.

Venus, being a champion that she is, was being grace in defeat. It was clear that she was disappointed and sad herself, from her voice during the runner-up interview with Sue Barker on court during the trophy ceremony. But indeed, Garbine Muguruza deserved to win today! She played an amazing aggressive tennis and it paid off at Wimbledon. Thus, she won her second grandslam title and became the first player, ever, to have beaten both Serena and Venus Williams in grandslam finals. Her first grandslam title was the French Open last year where she beat Serena, in a match which I also watched in person 😣. Though to be honest, I like Garbine Muguruza. But obviously at this time, I still like both Venus and Serena Williams “better” 😛 .

Garbine Muguruza won Wimbledon 2017.

Venus Williams and her runner-up trophy.

The next match that followed was the men’s doubles final between Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, the fourth seed, versus Mate Pavic and Oliver Marach, the sixteenth seed. Kubot and Melo had been playing especially well this year. And with their victory over Henri Kontinen and John Peers, the first seed, in the semifinals, Marcelo Melo would take the world no.1 position from Henri Kontinen in the following week.

Anyway, I stayed during the first set of the match, which went toe to toe but in the end, Pavic/Marach got the important break from Kubot/Melo in the twelfth game, and won it 7–5. I decided to stretch my legs after the first set and left my seat. I went around the ground where at the time, some other events were also being held, namely the legends events and the wheelchair events.

It was around 6 PM already so I decided to have dinner. I got the sizzling pheri-pheri chicken where I exchanged the bread for extra salad, haha. This dish turned out to be really delicious, btw, and I actually preferred this one than the southern fried chicken I had earlier! Haha 😆 .

Sizzling pheri-pheri chicken with lots of salad!

I went back to my seat and at the time, Kubot/Melo had won the second and third set 7–5, 7–6, respectively. However, they were down a break in the fourth set already. Pavic/Marach took the fourth set 6–3, meaning the match officially went to the decider fifth set. Both teams held their nerves really well during the decider. Kubot/Melo had the slight advantage of serving first, and so that Pavic/Marach had to face the pressure of serving to keep the match alive for a few times. This pressure almost got to them were Kubot/Melo had a few break points and even championships points; but Pavic/Marach were able to save them all.

An exciting men’s doubles final this year between Lukasz Kubot/Marcello Melo (in the closer side of the court) versus Mate Pavic/Oliver Marach (in the farther side of the court).

The match went toe to toe in the decider, and finally hitting 8*–9 score just after 8 PM. For whatever reason, I felt really tired already (I think Venus’ loss took some energy out of me 😛 ). I felt like I already had my ticket money worth anyway, even though the final ladies’ doubles match was still scheduled following the men’s doubles final. And so I decided to leave the venue.

I walked back to Southfields station and then took the Tube to Victoria. I checked-in at my hotel in the area and got into my room. I checked the score, and it turned out after more than 4.5 hours, Kubot/Marach finally won the fifth set 13–11, haha. The ladies’ final followed afterwards. The match turned out to be the complete opposite where the second seed, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, double-bagelled (won 6–0, 6–0) the ninth seed, Chan Hao-Ching/Monica Niculescu.

Marcelo Melo’s return to world no.1 was made even sweeter with a Wimbledon title.

As my Instagram followers (@azilko) have known now, I went to … Wimbledon in London this weekend!! Yeay!! 😎

This trip was extremely impulsive because I just started to prepare for everything literally on Friday morning. I used the same strategy as two years ago when I went on a similar trip to watch Serena Williams completed the second Serena Slam. I was super, super lucky to get a last-minute official ticket for the ladies’ final this year .

Back at Wimbledon Centre Court this year.

I already toyed with the idea of this spontaneous trip since I was applying for a UK visa this May actually. I told myself that if Venus Williams made the final, no matter what I would go (provided that I got the ticket, of course). I mean, this would certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity (Serena Williams did not play Wimbledon this year because of her pregnancy). I already checked everything (how to get there, accommodation, etc) and I knew this would be a costly trip given the last-minute nature. But it was worth the attempt if it was for a possibility to see Venus Williams contesting for a singles grandslam title!! I knew I must try to grab this if I was presented the chance!!

Venus Williams started the match with an ace.

And then on Tuesday, Venus Williams won her quarterfinals match against the reigning French Open champion, Jelena Ostapenko (coincidentally, that day I also posted the Roland Garros part of my 2017 Early Summer Weekend TripS series where I watched Jelena Ostapenko won that title 😛 ). So suddenly, it appeared to me that I might actually need to execute this plan! Haha 😆

The ladies’ singles draw of Wimbedon 2017, after the semifinals. Venus Williams was playing really, really well. Source: Wikipedia

I tried to get the ticket on Thursday but unfortunately I was unsuccessful. However, I still had a second chance which was the last official sales on Friday morning. This time, luckily I got one!! This was actually the better scenario in the sense that I already knew Venus Williams would play Garbine Muguruza on Saturday by this time. Had I bought the ticket on Thursday, it would have been a gamble because the semifinals still had not yet been played at that point, haha. It is quite funny, though, that two years ago I bought the ticket after knowing Serena Williams would play Garbine Muguruza. So is Muguruza my lucky charm? Hmm. Anyway, after getting the ticket, I quickly arranged everything else (how to get there and back, accommodation, etc). And in the evening, I left for London! This was also good as it meant I would end my flight-free streak a little bit sooner, haha 😛 .

Come on, Venus!! We all know you CAN do it!!

Obviously, this was a super fun last-minute weekend trip. As you (might) know, Garbine Muguruza ended up winning the title. As a fan, I cannot say that I did not feel sad with Venus’ loss, especially I was present there witnessing it. It was the classic mental match where one point determined the fate for the rest of the match. The point was 4*-5 (15-40) on Muguruza’s serve in the first set. Nonetheless, I still had fun in the tournament, as I love Wimbledon!! And adding that I finally got to see a Venus Williams’ official singles match (an exhibition match against Kim Clijsters in 2012 doesn’t count 😛 ), despite the outcome was not ideal to me, made it even better! I hope Venus will bounce back from this loss, as she has been showing great tennis form this year.

This is all I have for now. As usual, here are some teasers from the trip:

As usual, I went early to Stade Roland Garros, arriving there at around 9 AM and was amongst the first ten spectators at the gate today, haha. Though, as usual as well, the gate was only opened at 10 AM. Just like last year, btw, there were three security checks prior to entering the site 😛 . Anyway, I had toast sandwich for breakfast, which was okay. I loved the cappuccino, btw, mostly because it looked like this, haha:

Cappuccino

The first matches today would start at 11 AM. I was torn between watching my “usual” women’s legends final at Suzanne Lenglen or the boys (junior) singles final at Court No. 1. In the end, I chose the women’s legends final as I was already quite close to the court anyway, haha.

The final was between the defending champion, Lindsay Davenport/Martina Navratilova, and Tracy Austin-Holt/Kim Clijsters. Overall, the match was okay though it was clear Kim Clijsters was the best player on court; and there were too many errors from Navratilova and Davenport. Btw, it was nice to get a glimpse of Big Babe Tennis (a term describing women’s tennis being dominated by strong, tall players who play with a lot of power (in the early 2000s)), when Lindsay Davenport and Kim Clijsters were exchanging big cross-court shots in some of the points. Even though Navratilova and Davenport fought, in the end, Austin-Holt/Clijsters won the match 6–3, 3–6, [10–5].

After the match, I left Court Suzanne Lenglen and decided to have lunch at the restaurant, planning to have my usual steak with some ratatouille, a dish they always had every year since I first visited Roland Garros in 2012. But it turned out they (finally) changed their menu this year, haha. Instead of a steak, they had grilled aloyau beef presented in sticks, haha. So I had this one (though, arguably, this was still similar-ish to steak anyway 😛 ).

Grilled aloyau beef

After lunch, I went around the venue a little bit to stretch my legs before, at around 2:30 PM, going to my seat at Court Philippe Chatrier. Btw, at first I wasn’t sure with my seat as it was in one of the top rows in the stand (so it was quite some “distance” from the court), but this turned out to be good because the whole time, the seat was covered by the shade of the press boxes! Haha 😆 . You know, it was a really hot and sunny day today so it was nice to sit under some shade, really 😀 .

Back at Court Philippe Chatrier this year

The women’s singles match started at 3 PM. I just realized this year that the trophy (Coupe Suzanne Lenglen) was brought into the stadium in a Louis Vuitton box, though, haha. This was prior to the finalists entering the court. Anyway, not long after, Jelena Ostapenko and Simona Halep were welcomed in the court and took their seats. Ostapenko won the coin toss and chose to receive.

The coin toss

Then, the match started.

I won’t go to too much tennis details here, but Ostapenko started really well. As a young player in her first grandslam final, she was fierce! I like this attitude from a tennis player. The first set went pretty much neck to neck, until Halep broke Ostapenko’s serve in the tenth game and took the first set 6–4.

Simona Halep took the first set 6–4

Halep took the first three games of the second set, though those were three close games. At this point, Ostapenko was down 4–6, 0–3. I was hoping Ostapenko would not give up at this point and kept on fighting, so that the final would last a little bit longer so my ticket worthed more, lol 😛 . And, gladly, she was not!! She believed on herself, sticked to her own game, which was to be hyper aggressive, and eventually turned the fortune around. She won six of the next seven games and won the set 6–4!

Jelena Ostapenko took the second set 6–4.

The third set started out similarly, where Ostapenko was immediately down 1–3. Again, at this point she did not give up and kept pressuring Halep with all those aggressive shots. From 1–3 down, she won five straight games and, thus, winning the match 4–6, 6–4, 6–3!! WOW!!

Jelena Ostapenko’s winning moment after hitting a backhand down the line return winner.

Understandably, Halep was upset but she was, as always, gracious in defeat (IMO, Simona Halep is one of those players with great sportsmanship). The trophy ceremony followed afterwards, where Ostapenko was handed her first ever singles trophy, and it happened to be the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, a grandslam trophy!!

Jelena Ostapenko won her first singles title ever, and it was Roland Garros

It will be interesting to see how Jelena Ostapenko goes from hereon forward. I hope she can keep on this level of play and, especially, her fight to prove that this victory is not just a one time wonder thing. We will see…

Anyway, the men’s doubles match followed afterwards. Btw, the draw of this event also fell apart in this tournament, where two unseeded teams made the final: Ryan Harrison/Michael Venus and Santiago Gonzaels/Donald Young. For whatever reason, I felt really tired already and so I decided to skip this final and went back to my hotel. Well, but only after dinner at the restaurant I always visited every year nearby the venue, of course (read Part III ) 😛 .

Back at Stade Roland Garros!

Suzanne Lenglen

Charging point

Court Suzanne Lenglen

Kim Clijsters/Tracy Austin-Holt

Lindsay Davenport/Martina Navratilova

Lindsay Davenport hitting a forehand

Kim Clijsters hitting a forehand

Kim Clijsters/Tracy Austin-Holt won the women’s legends event in 2017

The 1989’s men singles’ champion, Michael Chang, playing tennis with his (?) kid

As I shared in April, though, I was less excited for the trip this year (this does not mean I was not excited, I still was, overall, of course!) because of Serena Williams’ withdrawal due to her pregnancy. And so the women’s singles field this year, which final was the main attraction of my trip, was probably the most “open” in recent years with no clear favorite.

Nonetheless, it turned out to still be very fun! The atmosphere of a grandslam tournament was, indeed, one of a kind. Even though Venus Williams did not reach the final (it was not that expected, anyway, as clay was clearly her least favorite surface), the field turned out to still be interesting. In the end, the final was between an unseeded player (because of her 47th ranking), Jelena Ostapenko, and the third seed, Simona Halep, who would ascend to world number 1 if she would win the final! Exciting, wasn’t it?

Jelena Ostapenko won her first singles title ever, and it was Roland Garros

As you might have known by this point, Jelena Ostapenko ended up winning the title! More importantly for me, the final match was such a close match between two players with very different style (Ostapenko with her hyper aggressive game and Halep with her defensive game) and different level of experience (Ostapenko’s highest ranking was 33rd while Halep is a seasonal top 5 players in the last three years or so). To add even more drama, Ostapenko was down 0–3 and 1–3 in the second and third set before, somehow, turned it around and won! Moreover, this was Ostapenko’s first ever singles title. How amazing that it was a grandslam!

Paris selfie this year at Louvre

Anyway, Paris itself was a beautiful city, even though I did not have any time to spend in the city itself. Plus, I was really looking forward to my first class train travels with Thalys to get to and back from there, haha.

Yeah, so overall this was another fun weekend for me. And so understandably now I feel quite tired too 😛 . As usual, here are a few teasers from the trip.

To be honest, my initial reaction was “shocked”; considering the stage of her tennis career where she is soo close to break Margaret Court’s all-time 24 grandslam titles (Serena is at 23).

But then, the pregancy news explains everything and, suddenly, it all makes sense. Untypically, Serena withdrew from both Indian Wells and Miami tournaments in March. Then, she did not sign up for Rome tournament, a big tournament where she is the defending champion and is an ideal preparation for the second grandslam of the year, the French Open.

Btw, being 20 weeks pregnant by mid-April, it means she was 8-week pregnant when winning the Australian Open earlier this year!! :shocked: Yes people, an 8-week pregnant Serena was even capable of winning a singles grandslam without even losing a set the whole tournament!! That just told us how great of a tennis player she was.

Serena Williams won her 7th Australian Open singles title and returned to world no.1 while being pregnant. Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images AsiaPac

In fact, as of this week, a 5-month pregnant Serena Williams is back at world number 1! Seriously.

Back to the French Open matter, you know, I have bought a ticket for a women’s singles final 😣 . From an entirely selfish fans point of view, I am quite disappointed with the news because this means for sure I will not watch Serena Williams in the final this year (I did last year and two years ago). With the current state of the WTA Tour, it is very unpredictable which two players I am going to watch in the final. I am hoping it is not two “random” players, haha. Even further, in this case I would want to see Venus Williams. However, given that it is clay and clay is not Venus’ favorite surface, well… .

Nonetheless, it is also announced that she still intends to come back in 2018. I do hope this will happen and it will be interesting to see how this comeback would go. Serena is known as the queen of comeback, but this one is going to be a little bit of a unique circumstance where she is not coming back from a prolonged injury or health issue.

Anyway, congratulations, Serena and Alexis Ohanian (the co-founder of Reddit, that is her fiancee)!! Honestly, deep down in my heart, I am happy with the news! 🙂

Every year since 2012, I always go to Paris to watch the French Open (Roland Garros). It turns out that this year, it will be no difference 🙂 .

Last week I got a reminder that the regular tickets would be sold to public this Wednesday. So I marked my calendar around the time of the sales opening and scheduled no meeting during the day, haha 😛 (While waiting for my turn, obviously I could work).

How was it? Well, in short, it did not go as smooth as last year, haha 😆 . I was already ready with everything since minutes before the opening. When the sales website went open, however, it crashed! 😣

I could not access it for minutes and I tried to open it via a few different sources. Only in my last trial, from a link they provided in their official Facebook account, worked. But I did this about five minutes since the official opening time. As a result, I was already number 35,000-ish in the queue 😣.

This year I was the 35K-something-th person in the queue 😣

Understandably, I felt super annoyed by this. Number-wise, this was indeed not as bad as two years ago, when I was at 50,000 something in the queue. However, it turned out to be “worse” than two years ago as I only finally got my access to the sales page after 135 minutes, or 30 minutes longer than two years ago WHILE my position in the queue was about 15,000 more to the front.

The situation inside the sales page was, therefore, quite similar to two years ago. There was no ticket left for the men’s singles semifinals and final on Friday and Sunday. Luckily, I was able to snatch a ring 1 ticket for the women’s singles final on Saturday! Haha 😆 . The seat was located at different tribune of Court Philippe Chatrier in comparison to last year and two years ago, so it would be interesting, I guess!

At Court Philippe Chatrier last year

Anyway, yeah, my amazing experience last year and two years ago made me want to go to the final again this year! Haha 😆 . Only getting the women’s singles final ticket was not all bad, though, as this meant I could go back to the Netherlands on Sunday; meaning I would not need to take any of my holiday allowances for this trip! Haha 😆 .

Btw, in 2014, 2015, and 2016, I flew to go to Paris for this annual trip. I actually was thinking to do the same this year, given my well-documented love for flying. However, after some consideration (mainly involving the time I would need to leave my office on Friday afternoon, haha, and a quick research), I decided to take Thalys’ high-speed train service this year. Yep, the last time I took Thalys was for the Roland Garros 2013 trip. That was four years ago! 😲

The last time I caught a Thalys train was in 2013.

This year, however, it will still slightly be different, though; because my return Thalys rides will be in FIRST CLASS!! Hahaha 😆 . Yep, I found a good deal for Thalys’ first class with the schedule that I preferred. In fact, for my return trip, my first class ticket was €18 cheaper than the second class ticket! Lol!

It is not a secret that my two most favorite female tennis players, ever, are Venus Williams and Serena Williams. Currently, they are in their mid-30s and still play great tennis; especially Serena who is considered to be the greatest female tennis player of all time.

This January, the first grandslam tournament of the year was held, the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia. Fortunately, both Venus and Serena were drawn into different halves, meaning they could only meet each other in the final (to be honest, nowadays I do feel like they are more often drawn in the same half of the draw than not, which is annoying to me, haha).

After six rounds, the tournament’s draw looked like this:

The women’s singles draw of Australian Open 2017, after the semifinals. Source: Wikipedia

Yes people, both Venus and Serena Williams made the final!! This Venus’ reaction after winning her semifinals match against the 25 year-old Coco Vandeweghe pretty much summed up my emotion as well:

You might wonder why a player of Venus Williams’ calibre was that excited just by reaching a grandslam final. There is a reason why.

In 2011, Venus announced to the world that she was diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease which zapped energy and caused pains. This was definitely not ideal for someone whose profession was a professional athlete. Consequently, she struggled with her tennis since then, losing matches to players she should have never lost and her ranking dropped. Many people wondered why she did not just retire, because to that point she had won so much anyway (be in tennis or financially (she already owned a few companies as well)). But she loved tennis. So much to the point that she was not going to let the incurable disease stop her.

Slowly she learned how to manage her disease while competing professionally. In the past two years or so, it started to pay off. She won more matches and bigger tournaments, ended 2015 ranked no.7, and spent much of 2016 in the top 10. But one thing was still missing: deep runs in the grandslams. She reached the semifinals of Wimbledon last year, but lost there to Angelique Kerber. Finally, her time came at this Australian Open, where she reached the final!!

Better, in the final she played her sister, Serena Williams! Yes, the first all-Williams grandslam final since Wimbledon 2009, which happened to be Venus’ last singles grandslam final prior to this one as well!

I took it for granted in 2009, though, confident that another all-Williams grandslam final would, for sure, happen again. Oh, little did I know that I would have to wait seven and a half years before the next one! At one point, I already made a peace with myself that it might never come to reality, haha. However, this made me enjoy this moment even more!

It was difficult for me to pick a side for the final, really. As I wanted both to win, haha. Amazingly, though, both played for different historical tennis record. For Venus, obviously, to win her eighth grandslam at the age of 36 would be amazing. For Serena, a victory would earn her her 23rd grandslam singles title, thus surpassing Steffi Graf’s 22 and becoming the winningest tennis player, male or female, in the open-era!

So it was indeed a win-win situation to me, haha. The only thing I could do was to watch the match and enjoy this moment!! Not that I was complaining, of course! Watching the match felt quite weird, though, where I was genuinely happy with every single point, as all of them were won by the player I was supporting! Lol 😆

In the end, the result was as expected where Serena Williams ended up winning 6–4, 6–4. Thus surpassing Steffi Graf’s record and putting herself just one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time 24 grandslam singles title record. As a cherry on top, she also returned to world no.1 due to the victory, replacing Angelique Kerber from the top of the ranking.

Yup, overall, I am super happy with the result of this year’s women’s singles of the Australian Open!!

Serena Williams won her 7th Australian Open singles title and returned to world no.1. Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images AsiaPac